Quote Your Love
by alecsangryface
Summary: Alec has a love affair with Shakespeare. Magnus is the recipient


**A/N: This was written as a celebration of 100 followers on my tumblr alecsangryface (gotta get that promo).**

 **I originally intended it to be very different and a bit longer but this happened and I really like how it turned out. I hope you all do too. Thanks for reading**

Alec's love affair didn't have a conception per say, it was more of a gentle decent into obsession and pinning the moment it started was difficult. So he didn't bother; Alec was completely content believing that Shakespeare had always been a part of him. It was strange to think that there was a time before it. What he did know was that he connected to characters whose own ideas were bread long before he was born.

The tragedies were his favourite, although he loved the histories too. There was something about the characters and their struggles that awoke something in him; like there was a long buried part of him that had the ability to recognise a kindred spirit. Maybe it was just the tortured, unhappy characters that he connected to. That was what he was really.

He connected with Hamlet and Hal as easily as one might connect with a brother, or a best friend, but it was nothing compared to how he felt towards Coriolanus. The great emotionless warrior. It was who he was. There were oft times when Alec wondered if he would ever find his Virgila. Someone that knew his ways, but loved him regardless.

He gave up on that when he finally figured out that he was gay. There would be no unconditional, all-forgiving love for someone who couldn't be who he was. He might be Coriolanus reborn, but there was no way he would allow himself to put someone else through that.

" _Let it be virtuous to be obstinate."_ Coriolanus cries. Let it be morally right to be unyielding.

Alec wants to scream it too; every single time that Isabelle asks him to open up to her. He can't. It has been a long time since he was allowed to be anything other than the warrior oldest son. He doesn't mind so much anymore, not since he read Coriolanus. He just wished Maryse and Robert were as supportive as Volumnia. They are the ones that made him after all.

He never quite understands the romances, he enjoys the stories around them and he would never tire of reading the story of Benedik and Beatrice falling in love in the most obscure way. It was fun but it wasn't relatable. He didn't understand why Romeo could give up everything he knew to be with Juliet.

Then he meets Magnus.

/o\

He doesn't quite realise what is happening to him until he's reading Much Ado About Nothing again, and he suddenly started paying more attention to Claudio and Hero. It's a strange thing a realisation. A brief thought that turns into something dangerous. Realising you were attracted to a warlock was dangerous, about as dangerous it got being a Shadowhunter.

Now he could lose his marks for two reasons, but only if he did something about that attraction. He wanted to. So much. Which is why he remembers nothing of him asking Magnus for a date. Did he recite the ' _To be or not to be'_ Soliloquy from Hamlet? He assumed he didn't when he remembered he did actually get a date.

It's not really until they've been 'dating' for a fair amount of time that Alec feels comfortable enough to share his obsession. Izzy knew because she was his sister. Jace knew because he was his parabatai. They had to know about it because they spent extended periods of time with Alec. Magnus was different though. Alec really _really_ liked Magnus and he didn't want Magnus to think he was weird.

He walks into Magnus apartment one afternoon, feeling fresh from the morning training and the rush he always felt in his muscles after was keeping him light. Magnus was sat at the table, chin resting in the palm of his hand and flicking through some sort of book. It looked old.

"See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. O, that I were a glove upon that hand, That I might touch that cheek!" He says as he watches Magnus, a joking air about him. But Magnus looks so soft that he does want to touch his cheek, and maybe use that touch to initiate something more.

"What are you talking about, darling?" Magnus asks quizzically. He had never heard Alec talk in such a way, he was prone to slipping into his 'Proper Gentleman' role on occasion; but never in such a way.

"… it's Shakespeare?" Alec scratched the back of his neck in a desperate attempt to distract himself from his internal crisis.

"Oh… did you just call me a girl?" Magnus sounded less offended than Alec though he would be, he sighed in relief.

"Technically yes. Buuut, only for the purpose of staying true to the medium" Alec shrugged and walked over to Magnus to take his cheeks in hand, "I know you're very much a male. Quite enjoy the fact actually"

Magnus smirks flirtily and takes Alec's hands to lead him to the bedroom. Alec feels like he's the luckiest man on earth.

/o\

It becomes an inside joke between the two of them; Alec's tendency to quote Shakespeare at the most inopportune times.

" _I love you" He whispers with conviction, as if the sheer force with which he says it can tell Magnus everything. He supposes it can._

 _Magnus beams up at him, the happiest he's been in a long time because Alexander Gideon Lightwood loves him! Which is why he has to reel it back to get their old banter back, awkwardness almost always follows shared declarations of love._

" _I am disappointed though" He says, mock hurt. Alec does nothing more than raise an eyebrow, it was better to let Magnus expand for himself rather than try to add anything to the conversation._

" _There was no Shakespeare quote to go with it" He pouted and Alec wanted nothing more to bite that bottom lip, but he indulged him with rolled eyes._

" _I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say 'I love you'" Magnus laughs loudly at that, his head thrown back and neck exposed. Alec can't be blamed for his lack of control this time._

/o\

"Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun." Magnus whispers to him one night while they are in bed. Alec almost doesn't hear it, but he does and he has never experienced a happiness such as this.

"You're quoting Romeo and Juliet" Alec whispered through his incapacitating smile, "I thought you didn't like to be compared to Juliet"

"I don't mind if you're my Romeo" Magnus whispered right back. He laced their fingers together and pressed tiny kisses to Alec's knuckles, "It was the only play I could be bothered to read"

"That's alright" Alec laughed. He could be described as nothing more than fond in that moment. His entire body called out love for Magnus, "I can quote enough for the both of us"

"Oh really? I wasn't aware" Magnus laughed too. He may jest with Alec that he hated it, but seeing Alec so passionate about something was a rare sight. A rare but beautiful sight.

"Hear my soul speak. Of the very instant that I saw you, Did my heart fly at your service" Alec whispers after a long moment of them just staring into the others eyes. He wanted to say something with his own words, Shakespeare made it easier. Magnus might have been blushing, it was difficult to tell in the moonlight.

"Which one?" He asks, knowing that Alec wouldn't be quoting something he knew.

"Tempest. Act 3, Scene 1" He laughs because Magnus knows, he knows that Shakespeare has already said everything that he could ever wish to say. He won't stop trying though. He'll never stop trying to give Magnus the sonnets he deserves. Even if it takes him until his last breath.

"You're sweet" Magnus playfully plants a kiss on the tip of Alec's nose to make him scrunch it up in the adorable way he always does, then burrows his head into Alec's chest; breathing in his warmth.

"Happiness is so rarely felt outside of a lovers arms" Alec whispers into his hair, sighing contentedly. There was a time long ago when he thought he could never have what he does with Magnus, a time where he thought he had more in common with Coriolanus than he ever did with Romeo. He knows different now.

"Which one?" Magnus asks again, his voice vibrating against Alec's chest.

"Alexander Lightwood, Act 4 Scene 1" He knows it's cheesy, yet the smile and laughter that it gets from Magnus is worth more than anything he could possibly dream of. Shakespeare might have been the only way to express himself once, but he was learning. One day Alec wouldn't need his words anymore; he would have his own.

 **A/N: Please Review**


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